Accutane Amendments

YAY!! I have officially finished my (hopefully one and only) journey with Accutane!! While I thought I had given a generalized idea of the do’s and don’ts of Accutane in MY SEVEN ACCUTANE COMMANDMENTS, I thought I could make a few amendments, and some recommendations. I am not posting this for profit or as an advertisement. I am posting this solely so you can potentially benefit from my rights and wrongs on this prescription. Do not be afraid to try a new product on Accutane, just make sure you read the label! Many moisturizers or lip balms work different than others. We all have varying skin types that we must pay attention to!

As I previously mentioned, prior to Accutane I had beyond oily skin, especially in my T-Zone, and jawline. Cystic acne was more common along my jawline, and random pop-ups on the rest of my face. As many may relate, it get’s frustrating.

*General Tip I left out

Avoid skin and lip products that obtain an ingredient comprised of alcohol. These include SD Alcohol, Denatured Alcohol, Isopropyl Alcohol. These are made to dry up your skin and lips. Quite the repurchase marketing if I’ve ever seen it! Skincare products containing Glycolic Acid and Salicylic Acid should be avoided as well. Your skin is beyond sensitive right now, so harsh topicals can do more hurting than helping.

Skin:

For starter, I love to treat my body from the inside out. This includes supplements and good, healthy foods. Supplements I took:

• Fish Oil - any brand, as long as it’s pure - this is good for moisturizing from the inside out.

• Nature’s Bounty - SkinElasticity Supplement

• Nature’s Bounty - MoistureTreat Supplement

• Vital Proteins - Collegen Peptides

Moisturizers I tried:

• FACE:

  • Clinique iD Custom Blend with the cartridge for irritation (the green one). This is on the pricey end, but helps with redness & irritation.

  • Ponds Dry Skin Cream Facial Moisturizer

  • Boscia Cactus Water Moisturizer; on the price-ry end, but feels SO refreshing!

  • Aveeno Positively Radiant Sheer Daily Moisturizer - with 30SPFs - I cannot stress enough how important SPF is! I sunburned in the middle of Wisconsin Winter - it's real. USE SPF! Thank me later 😊

  • *NOTE* On really dry areas of my face, I would sleep with gobs of Aquaphor on the needed area. GLOBS!
    

• BODY:

  • Hemps Herbal Body Moisturizer - I went through 2 of the large pump bottles 😅

  • Vaseline Intensive Care Essential Healing

  • Target Brand - Self Tanning Firming Daily Moisturizer - I was not a fan of the lack of color & this was a healthy way to moisturize and see some color!

  • Bath & Body - Ultra Shea Body Cream - 24 Hours moisture

  • The Body Shop - Shea Body Butter

• HANDS:

  • Bath & Body - Hand Creme

  • Aquaphor Tube (seriously, you won’t regret this)

  • Lanolin Lano Coconutter Hand Cream

Lips:

While I have always been known to have some sort of lip product on me at all times, I have narrowed it down to the most effective products while on Accutane. Pro-tip right off the bat: keep lip product within reach at all times.

• Aquaphor Baby Tubes: over the twisty tube chapstick. Your skin is going to crave any moisture. . . especially after the dosage increases.

• Eos Eggs and twisty Chapstick: I already had many on hand, and it was nice to have these in every purse, coat pocket, all over.

• Eos Lip Scrub is such a light exfoliant. Feels great right after showering or washing your face! It is not too grainy, yet helped relieve my lips of the dryness and peeling.

Hair:

As previously mentioned in MY SEVEN ACCUTANE COMMANDMENTS, even my hair has gotten noticeably less oily. I ~LOVE~ this for the reason of not having to wash it everyday (quarantine helps with that as well lol). I have been using my usual Shampoos I used before starting Accutane, but alternate in washes with different products. These products being:

• Head & Shoulders 2 n 1: surprisingly I’ve used this before for a sunburned scalp. Works great for that, which is why it works great for now! It helps ensure moisture near your roots, helping to eliminate breakage.

• Leave-in hair supplements I used to keep my hair hydrated

  • Hask Argan Oil

  • Aveda Cherry-Almond Leave-in Conditioner

  • Sebastian Dark Hair Oil

I avoided any type of heat on my hair if possible while on the prescription. It’s listed that hair loss is a side effect. Even though I do not know for certain I would be greatly affected with that side effect, I did not want to risk it.

Other:

I 100% felt more body aches during the treatment. Some days were better than others, but basic stretching exercises helped get me through majority of the months and dosages! I did these at least every other day!

Additionally, it took a weird red, dry rash on my hands in the first month to realize I needed to actually buy mini hand lotions to literally carry with me everywhere. . . even though everyone probably should now since we should all be washing our hands due to Coronavirus 😅

I 1000% recommend any of these products while on Accutane. Again, I am not profiting, I am here to help! This is a journey for everyone, there is light at the end of the tunnel! YOU GOT THIS! Please reach out if you have any additional questions/concerns about my findings :)

Xoxo